Items tagged with plug
Great news for those waiting for the tried-and-true USB connector to follow the path of Apple's thinner, smaller lightning connector... at least in terms of overall size. While mini-USB and micro-USB are certainly tiny by most definitions, they're still a little chunky when seen on some of the world's slimmest phones and tablets. In order to keep progress marching on, the USB 3.0 Promoter Group has announced that a next-generation plug is in development. The USB Type-C connector will be compatible with USB 3.x and 2.x technologies, but the most important part is this: it'll be both smaller than the existing plug, plus it'll be reversible. The reversible bit is probably Lightning's biggest improvement,...
Read more...
What if you had a mini, power-efficient computer that smiled at your when it was functioning properly, and frowned when something needed a tweak? It'd sure be better than your current troubleshooting setup, we're certain. Marvell announced today at CES their new "Classroom 3.0" technology, featuring an ARMADA-powered SMILE Plug and a partnership with One Laptop Per Child. The SMILE Plug computer is the starlet of the show, listed as the first plug development kit designed to turn a traditional classroom into a highly interactive learning environment. Designed to engage students in critical reasoning and problem solving, the SMILE Plug creates a "micro cloud" within a classroom that is completely...
Read more...
Andy Grove was once the Chairman of Intel, and is widely considered one of the best minds in American management. Time's Man of the Year for 1997 isn't spending his retirement from the chipmaker doing nothing; he's championing a push to get plug-in hybrid cars on the road ASAP.During the past year and a half, Grove has created his own crash course in electric power, plug-in hybrid vehicles and finding ways of shifting the nation's fleet of vehicles from gasoline. His goal: To draw more attention to electric vehicles."The most important thing I would like to do is light that almost half-assumed truth up in neon lights: Electricity in transportation has to be done. It is urgent. It is important...
Read more...
When it comes to solid, reliable networking connections, nothing beats copper at the moment. It's not the most convenient, as most people (particularly wives and girlfriends) don't want cables running across the floor, or even jacks in walls throughout the house. That leaves wireless, and although most people have wireless-G at this time, 54 Mbps (when you consider actual throughput) pales in comparison to standard 100 Mbps wired Ethernet. Even when you consider wireless-N, which still hasn't even been fully ratified, and its up to 300 Mbps speed, throughput isn't that fast by any means. Let's not forget the issues with distance and signal drop that exist in both...
Read more...
You've all felt the pain a WiFi network can bring, with fading signal strength through walls or over even moderately long distances inside your home or office. The only other option, short of snaking CAT5 cables inside walls and around your home or office is Powerline Networking. Initially, Powerline Networking technology was spotty at best in terms of its performance and reliability. Though it's not new, only recently have products entered the market which have the potential to meet or even exceed 100 Mbps wired Ethernet. One such product is the Actiontec MegaPlug AV 200 Mbps Ethernet Adapter. Rated for peak throughput of up to 200Mbps, we...
Read more...
IBM was out yesterday with a new blade chassis they are aiming towards small to medium size businesses. (SMB) The idea is to allow businesses that have previously needed a room full of separate servers to integrate them all together and handle the ever-growing list of different essential business computing applications like anti-virus, firewalls, email, data recovery,and all the many other caches of ones and zeros that make the modern information-reliant business run. Along with SMBs, which IBM defines as 1,000 employees or fewer, the new product could appeal to large retailers or financial institutions with stores or offices distributed over many locations. An IT department in...
Read more...
